The Weekly Standard observes Google’s enemies battling them along the rocky road to digitizing 32 million books. “[I]f Google finds a way to realize its dreams, it’s unclear exactly how useful the Book Search would ever be for the average user. Is there value in seeing "snippets" of this or that text?”

David Berman’s The Silver Jews have put the finishing touches on their sixth album, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea. The 10-song set is due in late April via Drag City. "It’s really different in that the songs have more epic settings. They are faux-heroic. Or rather foe-heroic," said Mr. Berman.